Tuesday, April 9, 2013

*WHOOSH* The Bellagio Fountain at night!! One of the first things I saw driving into Vegas with my mum!

(FG at Cesar's Palace!)

(FG out at Red Rock Canyon!)

(FG with the lovely and talented Meena! Thanks for taking me out to lunch!)

I had a great time in Vegas and cannot wait to go back...

... and I even got to meet one of my ALL TIME HEROES: TELLER from Penn & Teller!!! I want to write up something special about that because it really was special to me. Even if I was so tongue-tied from fangirl apoplexy I could barely get two words out. Possibly the only 33-year old woman reduced to incoherence by a 60+ Latin teacher cum magician but that's just how FG rolls.

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The big story this weekend was TOIFA! Did it live up to expectations?

Buzz was negative before the event, as I've covered in previous posts. And it seems like the reports of sluggish ticket sales were no exaggeration.

Kinsley Bailey, a Vancouver ticket broker, said sales for the event had been slow because people were holding out for a better deal. “I’ve had quite a few people looking for the tickets, they want the high-end tickets and they want to save a lot of money,” Bailey said. “I think the prices were way too high. If they were a lot more reasonable, they would have a greater turnout.”

The political side of the show reared its head right after this section. Premier Christy Clark wearing a blue salwar kameez came on with Shiamak Davar to address the crowd. Admittedly, the reception was quite mixed as Clark garnered some audible boos across the stadium. She highlighted that the event was only part of “what’s going to inject millions into our economy,” managing to deflect attention away from the $11 million spent for the event. Clark stressed the inclusivity and multiculturalism of the city.

If TOIFA was meant to showcase British Columbia to Indian audiences as a tourism destination, where were the beautiful scenic cutaways during performance transitions for audiences watching in India? The opening promotional "Beautiful B.C." video was forgettable. I barely noticed it. We don't even know if it will make broadcast for Indian audiences to see at a later date...

Where were the plugs from the Bollywood stars who found time to thank the premier? Where were the celebrity endorsements to visit www.hellobc.com, Tourism B.C.'s website? Why wasn't there more of an emphasis on B.C.?

In the Times of India newspaper’s top online story about the event on Sunday, neither Vancouver nor B.C. was mentioned, NDP MLA Spencer Chandra Herbert pointed out.

“It still seems to me that it was a last minute attempt more at appealing to voters rather than bringing trade to the province,” he said, adding that if the government really wanted to improve trade it would have taken more than four months to plan the event held a month before the provincial election.

“A lot of people had a good time, but 11 million bucks will buy a good time.”

The biggest kerfuffle to emerge post-Awards is a fan encounter with Ranbir Kapoor deleted from tumblr but captured here.

There were literally 10 people standing on my floor for Ranbir Kapoor. They were speaking so loud and that was their fault. But my cousins and I wanted to see him too, but we didn't want to get in trouble so we decided to go down to the lobby. We met Anurag Basu (who by the way is creepy as f**k) and he told us that Ranbir is out driving around and what not, however another girl who was with Anurag told us after 3 hours of waiting in the lobby for him, that he was in his room and he was "really messed up" When we got back to our rooms, these three disgusting guys were standing outside one was just in his robe and they were friends with Ranbir. We were walking past their room and my dad told me he saw things he couldn't unsee. Apparently there were prostitutes up in that room and Ranbir was hella hammered. I actually started crying because the man who was on a pedestal in my heart was doing all this bullshit with these unclassy, trashy people. My heart was aching.

First of all, having met Anurag Basu, I can confirm her report that he is, indeed, creepy as fuck.

Second of all, my heart aches in sympathy for her, having the image of a beloved hero shattered by reality.

While I think the "prostitutes" were probably just… how do I put this… hard core party girls of the type you see closing down clubs in tiny silver dresses and powedery noses at 4am, I believe her story otherwise. Ranbir Kapoor is a talented actor with a less-than-classy personal life and probably keeps company with a cadre of equally sleazy equally rich sons-of-businessmen and politicians.

The poor girl has been getting a lot of trash thrown her way but for my part, I'm just sorry she had to see his sleazy behavior in person.

Not everyone is in agreement. Kanika (name changed) worked with Percept Talent Management for less than a year before she had enough of her clients' tantrums and idiosyncrasies. Her struggles included being woken up at 3 a.m. to book a hotel room. Another time, she had to pack dessert toppings from a buffet counter for an A-list star's children. "The actors tend to think that they own you," says Kanika. "For them, we'll always just be glorified secretaries and spot boys."

And fans of musical theater in NYC should check out Bunty Berman Presents… and report back to me about how good/bad it is. Supposedly the play takes place in a Bollywood studio but if the music teaser is anything to go by, the music is going to majorly suck… aka be typical Broadway dreck.

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Much more to my taste is this clever cover of "Pehla Nasha"!

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Another teaser for Mariyan and can I just say... OMG DHANUSH!

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And the trailer for a frothy Siddharth film Theeya Velai Seiyyanum Kumaru... the more Santhanam in my life, the better.